Mr Chew – A Dive into the AD’s duties

Mr+Chew+-+A+Dive+into+the+ADs+duties

Nic Gulizia, Editor

Brian Chew is a rather popular figure on campus. Most students know him as the athletic director that you go to when you need a ticket to play a sport, or need to turn in your physical. His job may seem simple, but what goes on behind the scenes is much more complicated than it seems. 

He handles which teams get in the weight room and when. “It’s first prioritized by season,” Chew said. “If it were in the fall season, I prioritize the fall sports first. As we get into the winter season, I prioritize the winter season.” 

In order to keep every sport happy, Chew makes sure each sport gets however much time they need in the weight room. They may have to share with another sport if lots of teams want to access at similar times, but he attempts to fit everyone in.

Gunderson’s athletic Instagram account has roughly 900 followers and covers all sports on campus, and is run by Chew. He uses the platform to give athletes updates on tryouts, important games, and any other athletic events. 

 “One purpose of the Instagram account is to communicate with athletes about practice times and other specific announcements like that,” Chew said. “The other purpose of it really is just to bring faces to our athletic program and to acknowledge students and show the community what our program has been doing, [and] to hold a place online where students can feel proud about their athletic program.”

Chew is at every sporting event that he can attend, taking photos, creating posts, and supporting players. He also hopes that if any students would like to help take photos, come up with captions, create videos or designs, or run the account with him, they can talk to him and he would be happy to make that happen.

Chew and the Athletic Booster Club handle funding for athletic teams and sporting events. The boosters handle the money earned from the sales in terms of concessions at sports events they can attend. 

Mainly fall sports charge for admission to sporting events. Only a few winter sports like boys and girls basketball and wrestling charge admission, and no sports in spring charge admission. That money from entrance is very necessary for sports with larger demands such as football.

“The income that we get from those gate events pays for all sports, specifically referees and transportation,” Chew said. “A lot of that comes from football games which are the most highly attended games. Football is the most popular so it’s a big income for us.”